Every year more and more Europeans, including Germans, are embracing Islam. It is estimated that there are now up to 100,000 German converts—a number similar to that in France and the United Kingdom. ...
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Every year more and more Europeans, including Germans, are embracing Islam. It is estimated that there are now up to 100,000 German converts—a number similar to that in France and the United Kingdom. What stands out about recent conversions is that they take place at a time when Islam is increasingly seen as contrary to European values. This book explores how Germans come to Islam within this antagonistic climate, how they manage to balance their love for Islam with their society's fear of it, how they relate to immigrant Muslims, and how they shape debates about race, religion, and belonging in today's Europe. The book looks at how mainstream society marginalizes converts and questions their national loyalties. In turn, converts try to disassociate themselves from migrants of Muslim-majority countries and promote a denationalized Islam untainted by Turkish or Arab traditions. Some German Muslims believe that once cleansed of these accretions, the Islam that surfaces fits in well with German values and lifestyle. Others even argue that being a German Muslim is wholly compatible with the older values of the German Enlightenment. This book provides a fresh window into the connections and tensions stemming from a growing religious phenomenon in Germany and beyond.Less

Being German, Becoming Muslim : Race, Religion, and Conversion in the New Europe

Esra Özyürek

Published in print: 2014-11-23

Every year more and more Europeans, including Germans, are embracing Islam. It is estimated that there are now up to 100,000 German converts—a number similar to that in France and the United Kingdom. What stands out about recent conversions is that they take place at a time when Islam is increasingly seen as contrary to European values. This book explores how Germans come to Islam within this antagonistic climate, how they manage to balance their love for Islam with their society's fear of it, how they relate to immigrant Muslims, and how they shape debates about race, religion, and belonging in today's Europe. The book looks at how mainstream society marginalizes converts and questions their national loyalties. In turn, converts try to disassociate themselves from migrants of Muslim-majority countries and promote a denationalized Islam untainted by Turkish or Arab traditions. Some German Muslims believe that once cleansed of these accretions, the Islam that surfaces fits in well with German values and lifestyle. Others even argue that being a German Muslim is wholly compatible with the older values of the German Enlightenment. This book provides a fresh window into the connections and tensions stemming from a growing religious phenomenon in Germany and beyond.

Business and Management, Public Management, Pensions and Pension Management

State and local pensions have been a cost-effective way to ensure that those retiring from public service will have adequate retirement income after a lifetime of work. Despite their strengths, ...
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State and local pensions have been a cost-effective way to ensure that those retiring from public service will have adequate retirement income after a lifetime of work. Despite their strengths, opposition to public pensions has emerged in recent years. This chapter examines the economics of public pensions and outlines the role of public perceptions, politics, and interest groups in the public pension debate.Less

The New Intersection on the Road to Retirement: Public Pensions, Economics, Perceptions, Politics, and Interest Groups

Beth AlmeidaKelly KenneallyDavid Madland

Published in print: 2009-08-13

State and local pensions have been a cost-effective way to ensure that those retiring from public service will have adequate retirement income after a lifetime of work. Despite their strengths, opposition to public pensions has emerged in recent years. This chapter examines the economics of public pensions and outlines the role of public perceptions, politics, and interest groups in the public pension debate.

The chapter is based on interviews with formerly hidden children and is illustrated by numerous quotes. It describes various responses to the wearing of the yellow star and the desperate search for ...
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The chapter is based on interviews with formerly hidden children and is illustrated by numerous quotes. It describes various responses to the wearing of the yellow star and the desperate search for hiding places that follows the sudden and brutal roundups of the Jewish population in the summer of 1942. Life in the convents in which the children are hidden is detailed through the reactions of the children to prayers, baptism, confession, and communion. These reactions vary greatly from resistance to acceptance; remnants of Judaism persist for some. New attitudes to the body considered as shameful are learned, and lice fought, hunger endured, native language and identity concealed. Relationships with priests and nuns range from caring, tender, and maternal to cruel and punishing. In the aftermath of the liberation, the impact of Catholic institutions varies; many hidden children return to their Jewish identity and a few remain converted. The children face great difficulties due to the ravages in their families, and gender differences in opportunities offered to orphans are resented to this day.Less

The Children

Suzanne Vromen

Published in print: 2008-11-01

The chapter is based on interviews with formerly hidden children and is illustrated by numerous quotes. It describes various responses to the wearing of the yellow star and the desperate search for hiding places that follows the sudden and brutal roundups of the Jewish population in the summer of 1942. Life in the convents in which the children are hidden is detailed through the reactions of the children to prayers, baptism, confession, and communion. These reactions vary greatly from resistance to acceptance; remnants of Judaism persist for some. New attitudes to the body considered as shameful are learned, and lice fought, hunger endured, native language and identity concealed. Relationships with priests and nuns range from caring, tender, and maternal to cruel and punishing. In the aftermath of the liberation, the impact of Catholic institutions varies; many hidden children return to their Jewish identity and a few remain converted. The children face great difficulties due to the ravages in their families, and gender differences in opportunities offered to orphans are resented to this day.

Synopsis: The chapter examines Christianity's formative Western assimilation as a prelude to its overseas post‐Western development. The chapter turns to Roland Allen and the stirrings in China to ...
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Synopsis: The chapter examines Christianity's formative Western assimilation as a prelude to its overseas post‐Western development. The chapter turns to Roland Allen and the stirrings in China to disentangle Western civilization from Christian civilization, and to show how cultural assimilation falls short of radical conversion. The material, technical infrastructure of mission hindered access in hinterland regions, and impeded the training of local leaders. The chapter recalls the Gentile basis of affirming non‐Western cultures and values. The chapter shifts to Vincent Donovan and the Catholic response to Allen. Donovan agrees with Allen, and calls for changes in Catholic missionary practice, restating the missionary mandate by redefining creed and church. The chapter presents outlines of the Maasai African Creed as an example of the indigenous discovery of the Gospel, showing how that results in Christianity being rediscovered. That is the background of the worldwide resurgence.Less

Civilization and the Limits of Mission : Critical Pillar

Lamin Sanneh

Published in print: 2008-01-01

Synopsis: The chapter examines Christianity's formative Western assimilation as a prelude to its overseas post‐Western development. The chapter turns to Roland Allen and the stirrings in China to disentangle Western civilization from Christian civilization, and to show how cultural assimilation falls short of radical conversion. The material, technical infrastructure of mission hindered access in hinterland regions, and impeded the training of local leaders. The chapter recalls the Gentile basis of affirming non‐Western cultures and values. The chapter shifts to Vincent Donovan and the Catholic response to Allen. Donovan agrees with Allen, and calls for changes in Catholic missionary practice, restating the missionary mandate by redefining creed and church. The chapter presents outlines of the Maasai African Creed as an example of the indigenous discovery of the Gospel, showing how that results in Christianity being rediscovered. That is the background of the worldwide resurgence.

This chapter explores the many unique experiences of converted German Muslims. When they convert, they have to deal with a dramatic loss of status in society—something for which they were not ...
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This chapter explores the many unique experiences of converted German Muslims. When they convert, they have to deal with a dramatic loss of status in society—something for which they were not prepared. Born Muslims grew up learning the limits that society set for them. Even if they struggle against and challenge them, the marginalization they experience is a routine phenomenon. After being marginalized in the mainstream society to which they once unproblematically belonged, German Muslims face another unwelcome surprise when they realize that they do not fit in or not are welcomed by the existing Muslim communities in Germany, predominantly made up of Turkish and Arab communities that constitute the poorest, least educated segments of German society.Less

Giving Islam a German Face

Esra Özyürek

Published in print: 2014-11-23

This chapter explores the many unique experiences of converted German Muslims. When they convert, they have to deal with a dramatic loss of status in society—something for which they were not prepared. Born Muslims grew up learning the limits that society set for them. Even if they struggle against and challenge them, the marginalization they experience is a routine phenomenon. After being marginalized in the mainstream society to which they once unproblematically belonged, German Muslims face another unwelcome surprise when they realize that they do not fit in or not are welcomed by the existing Muslim communities in Germany, predominantly made up of Turkish and Arab communities that constitute the poorest, least educated segments of German society.

This chapter offers some concluding thoughts on how German converts to Islam apply different and at times conflicting strategies in order to demonstrate how Islam is a perfect—and indeed better—fit ...
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This chapter offers some concluding thoughts on how German converts to Islam apply different and at times conflicting strategies in order to demonstrate how Islam is a perfect—and indeed better—fit for German/European society. It also briefly discusses the significance of Salafi communities in this context. In addition, the chapter tells the story of a moral panic over converts to Islam that swept Germany in the 2000s, which suddenly moved German converts from their previously invisible position to center stage in the media. This account highlights the most novel aspects of Islamophobia, with the reason for the panic being the fear of a potential terrorist attack.Less

Conclusion

Esra Özyürek

Published in print: 2014-11-23

This chapter offers some concluding thoughts on how German converts to Islam apply different and at times conflicting strategies in order to demonstrate how Islam is a perfect—and indeed better—fit for German/European society. It also briefly discusses the significance of Salafi communities in this context. In addition, the chapter tells the story of a moral panic over converts to Islam that swept Germany in the 2000s, which suddenly moved German converts from their previously invisible position to center stage in the media. This account highlights the most novel aspects of Islamophobia, with the reason for the panic being the fear of a potential terrorist attack.

In this chapter, Kraemer examines an account not considered in her earlier work: the Letter of Severus of Minorca on the Conversion of the Jews, which narrates the conversion of the entire Jewish ...
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In this chapter, Kraemer examines an account not considered in her earlier work: the Letter of Severus of Minorca on the Conversion of the Jews, which narrates the conversion of the entire Jewish population of the island in the space of one week in February, 418 C.E. Based on the text’s representation of women as the last to convert, some scholars have read it as a reliable account of Jewish women’s principled resistance to Christianity. Kraemer argues instead that Severus casts Jewish women as the last hold-outs against Christian pressure to convert, not to show us their courage and faithfulness, but rather so that he can depict Christians as models of proper gender relations (with women submissive to men, male bishops, Christ, and God), and Jews as paradigms of gender dis-order (with disobedient women, still the daughters of Eve, whose husbands are unable to control them).Less

Artemisia of Minorca : Gender and the Conversion of the Jews in the Fifth Century

Ross Shepard Kraemer

Published in print: 2010-12-27

In this chapter, Kraemer examines an account not considered in her earlier work: the Letter of Severus of Minorca on the Conversion of the Jews, which narrates the conversion of the entire Jewish population of the island in the space of one week in February, 418 C.E. Based on the text’s representation of women as the last to convert, some scholars have read it as a reliable account of Jewish women’s principled resistance to Christianity. Kraemer argues instead that Severus casts Jewish women as the last hold-outs against Christian pressure to convert, not to show us their courage and faithfulness, but rather so that he can depict Christians as models of proper gender relations (with women submissive to men, male bishops, Christ, and God), and Jews as paradigms of gender dis-order (with disobedient women, still the daughters of Eve, whose husbands are unable to control them).

This chapter analyzes the conversion and life-story narratives of two East Germans who both grew up during the closed, authoritarian regime of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). When the wall ...
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This chapter analyzes the conversion and life-story narratives of two East Germans who both grew up during the closed, authoritarian regime of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). When the wall fell, Zehra was a twenty-year-old woman from a family of regime opponents just about to begin her life after graduating from high school. Usman was a thirty-year-old man with an established position as a chemist at an East German state-run factory. The fall of the wall transformed both their lives radically, recasting them as second-class citizens with no foreseeable way out in the united Germany. Both Zehra and Usman converted to Islam shortly after the collapse of the East German Communist regime in 1989.Less

East German Conversions to Islam after the Collapse of the Berlin Wall

Esra Özyürek

Published in print: 2014-11-23

This chapter analyzes the conversion and life-story narratives of two East Germans who both grew up during the closed, authoritarian regime of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). When the wall fell, Zehra was a twenty-year-old woman from a family of regime opponents just about to begin her life after graduating from high school. Usman was a thirty-year-old man with an established position as a chemist at an East German state-run factory. The fall of the wall transformed both their lives radically, recasting them as second-class citizens with no foreseeable way out in the united Germany. Both Zehra and Usman converted to Islam shortly after the collapse of the East German Communist regime in 1989.

With the Revolutionary trauma and Anglican Church swept away, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists could turn their full attention to each other as they competed for converts and ascendancy in the ...
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With the Revolutionary trauma and Anglican Church swept away, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists could turn their full attention to each other as they competed for converts and ascendancy in the religiously free nation. The insular Presbyterians and Baptists struggled to keep pace with the Methodists by experimenting with some of their tactics, including warm, extemporaneous preaching, lively music, and itinerancy, yet ultimately they relied on their traditional distinctions in appeals for converts. Methodists forged ahead with their universal designs and waves of quarterly and annual meetings that fostered outdoor preaching events and camp meetings, but as they encountered their competitors, they had to define their distinctive message, and, doing so, they addressed their Calvinist rivals on the enemies’ terms: the controversial spirit that the Methodists had hoped to convert.Less

Sowing and Reaping

Philip N. Mulder

Published in print: 2002-05-16

With the Revolutionary trauma and Anglican Church swept away, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists could turn their full attention to each other as they competed for converts and ascendancy in the religiously free nation. The insular Presbyterians and Baptists struggled to keep pace with the Methodists by experimenting with some of their tactics, including warm, extemporaneous preaching, lively music, and itinerancy, yet ultimately they relied on their traditional distinctions in appeals for converts. Methodists forged ahead with their universal designs and waves of quarterly and annual meetings that fostered outdoor preaching events and camp meetings, but as they encountered their competitors, they had to define their distinctive message, and, doing so, they addressed their Calvinist rivals on the enemies’ terms: the controversial spirit that the Methodists had hoped to convert.

The rabbis break with Ezra, Jubilees, and sectarian sources that democratize the priestly requirement of genealogical purity. According to the rabbis, genealogical purity is not an end in itself for ...
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The rabbis break with Ezra, Jubilees, and sectarian sources that democratize the priestly requirement of genealogical purity. According to the rabbis, genealogical purity is not an end in itself for ordinary Jews, but an optional matter relevant only in determining fitness for marriage into the priesthood and appointment to certain positions of leadership. Over the course of centuries, the rabbis took steps to eliminate the disadvantages of genealogical blemish and narrow the gap between native‐born and nonnative Jews. Two halakhic developments brought greater parity between native‐born Jews and converts: the gradual prohibition of unions between converts and persons prohibited to native‐born Jews (e.g., the mamzer) and the campaign to permit intermarriage between converts (or their descendants) and priests.Less

Gentiles and Genealogical Impurity: Converts and Their Offspring in Rabbinic Texts

Christine E. Hayes

Published in print: 2002-12-12

The rabbis break with Ezra, Jubilees, and sectarian sources that democratize the priestly requirement of genealogical purity. According to the rabbis, genealogical purity is not an end in itself for ordinary Jews, but an optional matter relevant only in determining fitness for marriage into the priesthood and appointment to certain positions of leadership. Over the course of centuries, the rabbis took steps to eliminate the disadvantages of genealogical blemish and narrow the gap between native‐born and nonnative Jews. Two halakhic developments brought greater parity between native‐born Jews and converts: the gradual prohibition of unions between converts and persons prohibited to native‐born Jews (e.g., the mamzer) and the campaign to permit intermarriage between converts (or their descendants) and priests.